Felt blanket

With my obsession for felt squares I started an embroidery one autumn with tiny pieces of appropriately coloured felt in the middle of a square approx 20cm. I started without any idea of what it would turn into. So this is the first square

which grew

and grew

and grew

until it became double bed sized! And had to stop growing as I ran out of backing fabric! But it does look gorgeous on our bed. And I think it will lead on to many more felt ideas. Here are some of its details.

Felt embroidered cards

A few years ago I bought some gorgeous felt squares from Oliver Twists that are hand dyed and have a lovely speckled effect as well as subtle colour changes on many of them. The squares are about 9 1/2cm and perfect for a quick couple-of-hours project that can then become an amazing handmade card.
Here are some recent ones. I find it helpful to do a few together at one time as when I'm working on one I get an idea for what the next one could be.

The wool on this one was short pieces used to tie the squares together in a bundle.

This is based on a drawing/doodle I did many years ago and has just sat in my notebook until recently.

This is not quite my usual colours but was inspired by a recent trip to the Lake District with my husband. We stayed in a gorgeous vegetarian hotel called Lancrigg (http://lancrigg.co.uk/ - well worth a visit whether you're veggie or not as the food is amazing!)

These next 3 are actually made on my own handmade felt. After playing with other people's felt for a while I thought it was worth having a go and fortunately my sister had done a course of felt-making and had some expertise so we had a lovely day together playing around and experimenting. I was very pleased with the results although they didn't feel as hard-wearing or strong as the bought ones.

Paisley inspired birds (when I got bored with just the paisley shapes) and perfect for the engagement card below!

Paper punches

I've been collecting paper punches for some years now and have well over 30 of them in various shapes, big and small. My current favourite is a recent find. It was one of those times when you think 'I wonder if such a thing exists?' and when you look on Amazon, there it is! A paisley punch.

Aren't these amazing? Now just need to find lots of things to decorate with them!

Calligraphy cards

I always try and make my own cards to send to people rather than buying them, and one favoured method is little calligraphed messages or quotes, hopefully inspirational. Here a photos of some I have finished recently. I have a lovely stash of gorgeous papers and also a lot of paper punches to produce the little leaf and flower shapes etc.

Quote from the Buddha.

 by Kahlil Gibran.

 not sure where I found this quote from but I do like it!

 from the Gospel of St Thomas.

This is the top of an 18th birthday card I made recently for my niece. It continues inside with 'birthday' and her name, and I was really pleased that there were 18 letters for 18 hearts! Very fiddly but I do like playing with things like this. :)

Sewing aids

Here's a couple of photos of some of my lovely sewing aids.

The teacup pincushion idea probably came from everyone's favourite search site, Pinterest,
and the scissor holder was a flash of inspiration as I'd put my scissors into the (plastic) cotton reel I was using and realised if I got a wooden one it would look amazing. A quick ebay search found just the right thing and I'm so pleased with it.

Lego sewing machine

Here's a fab idea my sister found on t'internet, a model sewing machine made of lego! Fortunately we had kept the lego my son used to play with and I spent an evening rifling through a couple of boxes to find the right pieces. Not an easy task but worth it as I managed to find enough (or close enough) for 2 machines!

The inspiration came from http://suchitysuch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/lego-sewing-machine-tutorial.html
and it's easy to put together once you have assembled the right parts.

Welcome to Creative Living

Welcome!
Once again inspired by my lovely sister, I have started a second blog in which I will share all the creative things I am making and enjoying. I hope you like the heading photo in which I have tried to incorporate all my interests and loves. Over the following posts I'll be sharing photos of all the fun I am having creating and making and I hope you will find them inspiring. You'll pick up pretty quickly that there are certain themes I keep returning to, hearts, paisley shapes, glass beads, buttons and the colour purple! The list keeps getting longer as I type!
Please feel free to comment about the things you enjoy or ask questions.

Here's a lovely project to start with

an idea I got from Etsy, felt acorns (i.e. squashed felt beads) in real acorn cups. My sister and our two daughters and I had a great day making them one autumn.